A new anglo voice?

A new group currently gathering momentum is looking to act as an umbrella group to speak for federalist anglophones in Quebec.

The group, called Canadian Rights in Quebec -- CRITIQ for short -- has a similar mission to groups like Alliance Quebec; to promote linguistic equality and combat language discrimination.

And it was created, in part, to counter the possibility of tougher language laws coming from the recently-installed PQ government.

"They've been in the formation stages ever since the PQ got elected," says Mike Cohen,the Cote St. Luc city councillor who sat in on one of their meetings. "And I think it's comforting for the English community to know thatthere's a group like this that's establishing itself."

Businessman Gary Shapiro is spearheading the movement, and among some of the other notables involved include former politicians Robert Libman and Gerry Weiner, Suburban editor Beryl Wajsman and political columnist Barbara Kay.

With Eric Duhaime, Daniel Lapres, David Ouellette and Sharon Freedman organized the citizens coalition that stopped the Amir Khadir led PAJU attempted boycott of the Le Marcheur store on St. Denis St. because it sold Israeli products. In picture above left the critical day when MPs Marc Garneau, Marlene Jennings and MNAs Lawrence Bergman and Francois Bonnardel stood with us. Ouelletteis to my right and Duhaime to my left. Anti-boycott demos were held every Saturday for five months.

“I want to welcome everyone to this celebration of joy! Welcome to this celebration of the free! What we celebrate today are not the particularities of race and creed, but the universality of liberty. And the survival and success of the frontline member of the family of free nations in the face ofconstant existential threat.

“I want to address a few particular words to the young peoplehere. No, I am not going to tell you that you are the guarantorsof tomorrow. You already know that. I am here to tell you that you are the surety of today! And you are not alone. In Quebec today there are varieties of opinion on all manner of issues. They are expressed with passion in the free battleground ofideas. And that is a good thing. Many of these opinions wedon’t like. Some of you have faced many taunts of nullificationand interposition expressed with inappropriate ferocity. Butyou responded as democrats, with reason and engagement.You need to know you are not alone.

The interplay of English optics and French optique onCanada’s political scene has long fascinated Beryl Wajsman,president of the Montreal-based Institute for Public Affairs andeditor of The Suburban, Quebec’s largest English-languageweekly. “The ‘optique,’ as it is called in very politically savvyQuebec, is everything,” he wrote in a 2007 column forCanada Free Press. Wajsman told me that optics and optique mayhave first commingled in Montreal around the time of the 1980referendum on Quebec’s sovereignty. Independence for theprovince was voted down, with the “No” side bolstered by astirring speech from Pierre Trudeau at Montreal’s Paul SauvéArena just days before the referendum. Trudeau’s boldintervention, Wajsman recalls, created some powerful optics.

For the complete text of this New York Times article please go to the following link:

Alfred Apps says Wajsman has played a consultative rolebehind certain Liberal policies–for which Apps makes noapologies. “I think there’s an effort here on thepart of the Tories to slam people with guilt by association. Beryl is oneof the militants that is helping with the party, and his helpis welcomed.” The presumptive next Liberal President–he iscurrently running unopposed–suggests the so-called“banned list” on which Wajsman appeared was less aboutmeted out justice than it was a vestige of the old, bitter feudbetween Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien. “That list wascreated before the Gomery Commission had made any of itsfindings,” Apps said.

Montreal lawyer Julius Grey told Maclean's, “There is noevidence that Beryl is anything but honest. There is only somuch a citizen can take of having mud thrown at him.”

“No nation can sit idly by while over 8000 rockets over six years are hurled at it. Even Egypt closed its borders to the Gazan regime. Many speak of Hamas as the duly elected government of Gaza. Yet they conveniently forget that Hamas only got elected because it killed or drove out most of their Fatah opponents prior to the vote. It was an election as Stalinist as any.”

BPW with (l-r) attorney and community activist Brigitte Garceau,journalist P.A. Sévigny and the City of Montreal`s Réal Normandeauat meeting to help the Maison du Partage d`Youvillefood bank and community kitchen

Behind the scrim of the noisy war on terrorism, the United Stateslaunched, in October, the largest domestic-policy initiative of the past 40 years. With US$65-billion potentially at stake, in the quick flourish of an executive order, faith-based charity became the biggest social experiment in history. Lucky for us, the Americans do all the dirty work. Canadians must watch their progress with enormous interest. As the Canadian Association of Food Banks makes clear, food-bank use in Canada reaches 778,000 people a month and has doubled since 1989. That's more than the entire population of New Brunswick, points out a press release from the organization, which appears to document its statistics meticulously. The solution? "A comprehensive policy to realize food security for all citizens," says the group.Anyone else smelling a Charter challenge? Noble as that would be, people are starving, and cannot wait for the "right to food" to be written into the Constitution.As Amy Sherman of the Hudson Institute says: "Kids are dying on the streets, single moms are making $6 an hour. All hands on deck."

So a few Montrealers have taken matters into their own very competent hands. A group of corporations and unions, at the instigation of The Institute for Public Affairs, under the stewardship of the magnetic Beryl P. Wajsman, have made a commitment, in perpetuity, to feed as many as half-a-million hungry Quebecers. This is Quebec civil society in action. Working together, without a penny from government to solve an immediate problem. According to Wajsman, Charles Seiden, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Food Banks "puts the number of Canadians suffering through, as he calls it, 'food insecurity,' at three to four million." Not a pretty number, especially when you consider the billions that Ottawa's bloated bureaucracy flushes down the toilet on vanity projects.Wajsman and his partners are planning to extendtheir Quebec initiative across Canada.What Beryl Wajsman and his fellows are doing seems to be the Canadian version of a faith-based initiative. We must hope that he succeeds -- and that more citizens take back the fundamental responsibility for care of the poor from a government that has failed.

On Social JusticeThe Issue No One Is Talking About

The most unpleasant sound to a politician is silence. Just ask Ed Broadbent. The former leader of the New Democratic Party left Parliament in 1989 to pursue a career as a teacher and lecturer. But as he traveled the country talking up his favorite theme—the lingering “national disgrace” of child poverty—Broadbent was shocked by the degree of apathy. “No one paid attention,” he says.

It was Broadbent who pricked the nation’s conscience 15 years ago by reminding citizens that thousands of Canadian youngsters went hungry every night. The message struck a chord with a population that had prided itself on being a global model of fairness. In 1989, a year after the N.D.P. won 43 seats in its best-ever federal showing, Broadbent leveraged the party’s clout in what was then a Tory-minority government to secure a resolution pledging to “eliminate” child poverty by 2000. At the time an estimated 1 in 6 Canadian children lived below the poverty line. Not only did the pledge go unfulfilled, but things have got worse. The number of people earning less than $11,000 a year grew during the 1990s by 34%. About a million Canadians under the age of 18 are in dire need, according to Campaign 2000, a national antipoverty group.

And so the problem festers. True, much of the economic news is good: employment is at an “all-time high,” Bank of Canada economist Stéfane Marion told the Globe and Mail last week, adding, “We believe the economy could actually return to its production potential before the end of 2005.” But too many Canadians aren’t keeping up. According to Beryl Wajsman, president of Montreal’s Institute for Public Affairs, a third of the nation’s work force has less than two weeks’ salary in the bank. Canada, Wajsman says, has only a “thin veneer of affluence.”

Why aren’t we talking about this? Here’s one reason. While political leaders are scrambling to outbid one another with plans for spending the nearly $3 billion surplus stored up over a tough decade of budget cuts, few seem willing to risk appealing to the better angels of our nature. In 1968 Pierre Trudeau won Canada’s heart by promising a “just society.” The fear mongering that has come to dominate the campaign—the Liberals began airing TV spots last week implying that Canadians were at risk from guns, pro-lifers and foreign wars—suggests that party tacticians believe today’s voters are interested only in getting through the night safely. Wajsman doesn’t buy it. “They’re not giving the electorate enough due,” he says. “Social justice is the bread-and-butter issue of our time, but it takes political courage to bring this up.”

The Post is to be commended for highlighting Vancouver's Nazanin Afshin- Jam's successful campaign to free Nazanin Fatehi from Tehran's infamous Evin prison. Ms. Fatehi languished in prison for two years after being sentenced to death for stabbing a man who was trying to rape her. Since there were not four male witnesses to the attempted rape, as required by Shariah law, Ms. Fatehi was convicted of premeditated murder. Her case drew some media attention, but it was not until Ms. Afshin-Jam -- 2003 Miss World Canada -- took the lead that the world really took notice. The decision by Iran's judiciary to reverse itself is almost unprecedented.At a recent Public Affairs of Montreal conference on "Questions of Values: Ways of Response to the Islamist Challenge," Ms. Afshin-Jam used Ms. Fatehi's story as a case study, illustrating the embedded discrimination that exists under Shariah Law. In this age of universal deceit, when as George Orwell wrote, "merely speaking the truth is a revolutionary act," Ms. Afshin-Jam's actions are truly a passionate profile in courage. Many in Canada like to argue that we are a "reasonable" society, not a passionate one. Yet the two are not mutually exclusive.

Passion is not the opponent of reason. Fear is. And lives fuelled by fear are not very much at all.

Beryl P. Wajsman, president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal

Nazanin Afshin-Jam (l.) at Amnesty International's World Day Against the Death Penalty in Berlin demonstrating for Nazanin Fatehi

As many of you know we have focused much attention on air, and given moral and material support from the Institute, to the singularly heroic work of human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam in her efforts to free 18-year old Nazanin Fatehi from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison where she has languished for two years after being sentenced to death for stabbing the man who was trying to rape her. Fatehi’s case had drawn some world attention, but it was not until Afshin-Jam, who had already engaged in humanitarian work from Africa to Asia, put her life on hold to lead an international effort to save the life of this young girl facing the hangman’s noose because of Sharia law that the world sat up and took notice.

“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from thousands of different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

~ Robert F. Kennedy

Many make the mistake that because we, as a society, strive for reason, that we must therefore abdicate passion. Yet passion is not the opponent of reason. Fear is. And a life fuelled by fear is not very much at all. Nazanin Afshin-Jam did not forget passion and did not submit to fear. In her single-minded pursuit of justice for Nazanin Fatehi she has served as an example for all Canadians making us realize that we are at our best when we transcend our narrow narcissisms and become involved in mankind’s transcendent yearnings for redemptive change.

We are pleased to report that the Institute's 3rd Policy Conference , held May 29th at the Club St.Denis, was a resounding success. We have already had positive reactions from circles in Ottawa and in Washington. Jim Duff's report on it, posted in our Initiatives section, may be viewed at:

"Jim Woolsey and Dale Watson were genuinely impressed and honored by the professionalism and treatment. They are already talking about how soon they can come back to Canada."-Gerald Chipeur,Esq., Chipeur Advocates, Calgary

"Gen. Belzile and I thoroughly enjoyed the Conference. It was professionally run with an excellent group of speakers. The networking was of excellent value."-Col.(ret.)Alain Pellerin, Executive Director, Canadian Defence Associations, Ottawa

"Thank you for a most stimulating Conference."-David Bensoussan, Communautés Sepharade du Québec, Montréal

"I was thoroughly riveted by the presentations...it was a rare opportunity. A Tour de Force!"-Marie Bourbonniere, Raymond Chabot

"I really enjoyed this Conference. Keep on with the good work in building Canada's future."- Me.Stephane Hébert, IRB

“It was a who’s who” at theInstitute for Public Affairs of MontrealSecurity & Trade Conference

LINDA MASSARELLASunday, June 1, 2003

Beryl Wajsman, president of the influential Institut des Affaires Publiques de Montreal, has just wrapped up the Institute’s 3rd Policy Conference. Entitled “Doing Business in a Dangerous World: Security & Trade in the Post Iraq Era” brought together major politicians, military and security officials and leading CEO’s.It was a who's who of intrigue at the by-invitation-only Conference held at the Club St. Denis. Former CIA head honcho James Woolsey was the keynote speaker and spent some time at a breakfast meeting with some high-powered Institute board members and Wajsman’s special invited guests.Retired General Charles Belzile was there, as were businessmen, lawmakers and intelligence experts The Hon. Perrin Beatty, Thomas d'Aquino, President & CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Dale L. Watson, former Director of Counter-Terrorism for the FBI, Raymonde Folco, M.P., Michael F. Gallagher, Minister-Counsellor at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa , John F. Angus, President of the Stonehenge Corporation and board member of UBS (Canada) and Patrick Gagnon, former M.P. and current President of Protocol StrategiesBut it was Canadian Alliance MP Stockwell Day who made everyone laugh when he joked to Woolsey he'd love to be an undercover diplomat for the U.S. intelligence agency: "I'd love to tell people my last name is Bond, only trouble is I'd have to say, 'Hello, I'm Stock Bond.' "

4th Institute Policy Conference

Québec and Israel:

"A Challenge to the Content of our Character and the Courage of our Conscience"

The Institute has just concluded it's first Quebec-Israel Conference on Civil Society held July 7th at the Club St-Denis in Montréal. This historic encounter was the first time that leaders of every sector of Quebec met with representatives of the Government of Israel on a broad-based summit agenda. Political, economic and cultural relations were covered by an important and compelling assembly of leaders. Four Israeli officials, including Aharon Yaar, Director of the North American Division of the Foreign Ministry of Israel and newly appointed Montreal Consul-General Marc Attali attended. We are proud that all sectors of Quebec were represented including business, labor, government, cultural groups, media and academe. Among the notable guests were Henri Massé, President of the FTQ, Guy Bouthillier of the Société St-Jean Baptiste, André Pratte of La Presse, Francis Bellido, President of the Société Generale de Finance (Santé), Nino Colavecchio, President of the Congress of Italo-Canadians, Jean E. Fortier, President of the Conseil des Relations internationales de Montréal, Danielle Laberge, Vice-Rector of UQAM and Ronald Denom, Senior Vice-President of SNC-Lavalin International. Other participants from the business community included Myriam Truchon, Director of Public Affairs and Environment of Hydro-Québec, Edith Ducharme of CDP Capital and Alain Bonneau of Montreal International.

When we we were asked to organize this conference we were quite pleased to accept because for us at the Institute, the support of Israel, without implying a blanket endorsement of all its policies, represents the support of a democracy and that is as much a part of the progressive agenda as the other causes we have represented, defended and participated in such as the compensation fight for the Duplessis orphans with Jacques Hébert, the plight of refugees with Sœur Andrée Menard, the protection of the homeless with housing co-ops O.E.I.L. and ROMEL, and the opposition to bank mergers with the Community Coalition for Re-investment. The fight for social justice is global and we should never be so smug as to think is stops at our borders.

There is a need for heightened understanding between the two societies, and we already have indications that this first meeting is leading to exciting new initiatives of co-operation in the political, economic and cultural arenas.